River Forest, Ill. — The postseason accolades continue to roll in for Concordia University Chicago Men's Basketball star Jordan Matthews. On Tuesday, the senior was named Third Team All-Region by D3hoops.com. He becomes the first CUC player to earn this honor since Mitch Pelissier in 2019.
Matthews' season was filled with several highlight moments. Perhaps none caught the attention of the region as much as his 20-point performance at then-No. 2 Illinois Wesleyan University, helping lead the Cougars to an upset victory in overtime.
With the team facing their toughest task of the season, Matthews set the tone right from the tip, knocking down a 3-pointer for the game's first points on his way to 11 points in the first 10 minutes. After the Cougars went into the locker room facing their largest deficit of the night (six), it appeared the game could quickly slip out of reach.
This proved not to be the case, as Matthews once again broke the ice in the second half with a 3-pointer. Less than two minutes later, the senior worked his way through the defense to the basket, converting a layup to cap an 8-0 CUC run that put them back in the lead.
Matthews added four more points in the overtime period as the Cougars put away the Titans 81-75, giving CUC its highest-ranked win in school history. This caught the attention of the nation, as Matthews was named to the D3hoops.com Team of the Week three days later.
Two weeks later, with the Cougars eyeing their first conference championship since 2012 (NACC South), Matthews scored a career-high 30 points to lift the team over St. Norbert College inside a packed Geiseman Gymnasium on Senior Night. The win put their Cougars in control of their own destiny to earn at least a share of the title.
The senior shot 6-8 from deep in the game, delivering every time the Cougars needed a big basket. He took this momentum into the season's final week, dropping 19 at Wisconsin Lutheran College two nights later and closing out the regular season with 26 more at Rockford University two nights after that.
He filled out the stat sheet in the season finale against the Regents. In addition to his 26 points, Matthews had six assists, four rebounds, and a season-high six steals. He was 10-15 from the floor in 38 minutes of action. With their third win in five days, the Cougars earned a share of their first conference championship in 10 years. They'd go on to be the No. 1 seed in the NACC Tournament via tiebreakers.
Over the final three games of the regular season, Matthews averaged 25 points, 3.6 assists, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.3 steals. This was a strong representation of the season as a whole, as he led the team in PPG (14.9), assists (61), steals (46), and was third on the team with 104 rebounds.
As the calendar flipped to the postseason, the Cougars prepared to host a playoff game inside Geiseman for the first time in 10 years. Once again, it was Matthews who shined bright on the big stage. He led all Cougars with 21 points in their wire-to-wire win over Edgewood College in the NACC Quarterfinals, shooting 7-14 from the floor and 4-6 from deep. His season-high 12 rebounds gave him his first double-double of the year at the best possible time.
Though the season ended two nights later, Matthews' play throughout the season, in particular down the stretch, catapulted the Cougars to heights they hadn't reached in recent memory.
The senior is expected to return to River Forest for a fifth-year next fall. It will be his third with the Cougars.
You can keep up with all offseason news at cucougars.com, as well as on Twitter @CUC_menhoops.
